Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Federal Spending by the Numbers - 2012

The federal government has closed out its fourth straight year of trillion-dollar-plus deficits, and the imperative to rein in spending has never been greater. Because all government spending gets paid for through either taxes or borrowing—both of which burden the economy—spending reduction is an essential condition for promoting economic growth.
As this 2012 edition of Federal Spending by the Numbers shows, total federal spending for fiscal year 2012[1] reached $3.6 trillion, or 22.9 percent the size of the entire U.S. economy. In the past 20 years, federal outlays have grown 71 percent faster than inflation. The average American household’s share of this spending is $29,691, roughly two-thirds of median household income. This relentless growth is projected to continue, pushing total government outlays to $5.5 trillion a decade from now, and to about 36 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in the next 25 years.

Read more: http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2012/10/federal-spending-by-the-numbers-2012?roi=echo3-14101106140-10770494-428d58848770c418a714e913ff01ca12&utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Morning%2BBell

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